Transcriptome analyses to deduce the responses of three species of

I previously demonstrated that feeding on photosynthetic preys is harmful to Naegleria sp. under high light condition (2.3.3). To understand how the unicellular herbivorous predators cope with the phototoxicity of photosynthetic preys, change in transcriptome in the three species of amoebae (Naegleria sp., Acanthamoeba sp., and Vannella sp.) feeding on photosynthetic prey upon illumination were examined. Because changes in mRNA levels of some genes are likely caused by the light stimulus regardless of photosynthetic trait of the prey, I also examined the changes in transcriptome upon illumination in all the three species of amoebae feeding on non-photosynthetic prey, or in Naegleria sp. and Acanthamoeba sp. which were grown in an organic medium without bacterial prey. In addition, to examine whether the changes in respective mRNA levels in amoeba feeding on the green S. elongatus are resulted from photosynthetic oxidative stress, I also examined the effect of chlorophyll a, exogenous H2O2, and a singlet oxygen producer (Rose Bengal) on the transcriptome.

To this end, I prepared four kinds of bacterial preys: green S. elongatus (green) as the photosynthetic prey, pale S. elongatus (pale) as the non-photosynthetic prey, E.

coli with (chl.) or without (w/o chl.) chlorophyll a-staining (Figure 2.1D,E and G). To grow amoebae without any bacterial preys, 1/10 strength of Proteose Peptone Glucose Medium (PPG^-10) was used (w/o prey). To examine the effect of singlet oxygen, 30 nM Rose Bengal (RB), a hydrophilic photosensitive dye generating singlet oxygen upon illumination (Kochevar and Redmond 2000), was added to the culture without bacterial

preys. To examine the effect of H2O2, amoebae cells cultured without bacterial preys were treated with 4 μM H2O2 under dark condition.

Four conditions, Chl., w/o chl., RB and H2O2 were applied only for Naegleria sp.; and the condition w/o prey was applied only for Naegleria sp. and Acanthamoeba sp. because Vannella sp. without bacterial preys did not exhibit any growth in the organic medium. Respective amoebae were cultured at 20˚C under dark for 12 h in respective conditions and then illuminated (200 µE m⁻² s⁻¹) except for H2O2 treatment.

Samples for dark condition were harvested just after the 12 h dark incubation and samples for light condition were harvested 1 h after the onset of illumination. For H2O2

treatment, 4 μM H2O2 was added just after 12 h dark incubation and further incubated under dark for 1 h and then harvested. To assess the reproducibility, the transcriptome analysis of amoebae with the green prey was performed twice in three species of amoebae by using two independent cultures at different times. To determine the transcriptome, RNA-seq was performed by Illumina HiSeq 2000.

By de novo assembly of RNA-seq reads with Trinity ver. 2.0.6 (Grabherr et al.

2011), total 32,128 (Naegleria sp.), 44,273 (Acanthamoeba sp.) and 33,493 (Vannella sp.) mRNA contigs were obtained. As representative mRNA contigs for isoforms transcribed from the identical genomic loci, the longest contigs of Naegleria sp. (21,376 contigs), Acanthamoeba sp. (21,513 contigs) and Vannella sp. (19,779 contigs) were selected. By the prediction of protein-coding regions with TransDecoder ver. 2.0.1 (implemented in the Trinity software, http://transdecoder.github.io), total 19,827 (Naegleria sp.), 20,264 (Acanthamoeba sp.) and 15,302 (Vannella sp.) protein-coding

Trinotate ver. 2.0.2, an annotation protocol and toolkit for de novo assembled transcriptomes (available at http://trinotate.github.io).

First, up- and downregulated mRNA contigs upon illumination in amoebae feeding on the green prey were extracted based on comparison of FPKM values (>2-fold changes). Percentages of upregulated contigs (genes) were 2.6% (Naegleria sp.), 2.8% (Acanthamoeba sp.), and 1.3% (Vannella sp.), while percentages of downregulated genes were 2.8% (Naegleria sp.), 2.9% (Acanthamoeba sp.) and 0.8%

(Vannella sp.) (Figure 3.1A). Then, contigs, whose magnitude in the change upon illumination was compromised in the amoebae feeding on the pale prey or amoebae cultured without prey were extracted as “specific to Green” (Figure 3.1A). Percentages of genes upregulated specific to green were 0.5% (Naegleria sp.), 0.9% (Acanthamoeba sp.), and 1.2% (Vannella sp.) while percentages of genes downregulated specific to green were 1.2% (Naegleria sp.), 1.3% (Acanthamoeba sp.) and 0.5% (Vannella sp.).

These changes are probably directly caused the photosynthetic trait of the green prey.

However, the changes upon illumination regardless of the photosynthetic trait of preys (i.e. pale or w/o prey) would also be important for amoebae to cope with the phototoxicity of the preys because some of these changes would be programmed upon illumination to cope with “expected” phototoxicity of the preys in nature.

To assess what extent of the changes in the transcriptome observed upon illumination in amoebae feeding on the green prey are related to possible photosynthetic oxidative stress, the results of the green prey were compared with the effect of chlorophyll-stained E. coli prey and exogenous RB and H2O2 treatments (Figure 3.1B;

area-weighted Venn diagrams). 93.5% (477/510) and 85.3% (474/556) of contigs, which were up- and downregulated (>2-fold changes) upon illumination in amoeba feeding on

the green prey, were also up- and downregulated in amoebae feeding on chlorophyll-a-stained E. coli upon illumination, RB treatment upon illumination or H2O2 treatment under dark, respectively. These results suggest that most of the changes in mRNA levels in amoebae feeding on the green prey under illumination results from photosynthetic oxidative stress even though some changes were also observed upon illumination regardless of the photosynthetic trait of preys (Figure 3.1A) as above.

To assess what kinds of functions were upregulated or downregulated upon illumination in amoebae feeding on the green prey, GO enrichment analyses were performed by GO-seq (Young et al. 2010) (P-value ≤ 0.05). In the analyses, differentially expressed genes were defined based on the differential expression analyses using edgeR (Robinson et al. 2010) (P-value ≤ 0.05). To facilitate the interpretation of the results, some GO terms were further categorized manually into 10 categories: “actomyosin”, “carotene”, “cytoskeleton”, “DNA repair”, “motion”,

“oxidative stress responses”, “phagocytosis”, “proteolysis”, “respiration”, and

“v-ATPase” (Figure 3.1C).

GO terms that were categorized into oxidative stress responses, DNA repair, proteolysis, and respiration were enriched only or predominantly in upregulated contigs in all the three species of amoebae (Figure 3.1C; Table 3.1, Naegleria sp.; Table 3.3, Acanthamoeba sp.; Table 3.5, Vannella sp.). In addition, GO terms that were categorized into carotene and v-ATPase were enriched only in upregulated contigs in the two species of amoebae (Figure 3.1C; Table 3.1, Naegleria sp.; Table 3.3, Acanthamoeba sp.). On the other hand, GO terms that were categorized into actomyosin, motion, and

Acanthamoeba sp.; Table 3.6, Vannella sp.). The upregulation of GO terms related to oxidative stress responses and DNA repair suggest that the amoebae were exposed to oxidative stress when they fed on the green prey under light condition. In addition, carotenoids are known to be very efficient physical and chemical quenchers of singlet oxygen, as well as potent scavengers of other reactive oxygen species (Bartley and Scolnik 1995; Ramel et al. 2012). The upregulation of GO terms related to respiration is likely to consume oxygen that is generated by photosystems in the green prey. The upregulation of proteolysis and v-ATPase, which acidify lysosomes and phagosomes, likely led to acceleration of digestion of the green prey under light condition (this was further examined below.). The downregulation of GO terms related to actomyosin, motion, and phagocytosis likely led to deceleration of uptake of the green prey under light condition, because actomyosin is known to be involved in phagocytosis (Buss et al.

2002; Smythe and Ayscough 2006; Chandrasekar et al. 2014; Mooren et al. 2012;

Hasson 2003; Olazabal et al. 2002) (this was also further examined below.).

Then I further examined changes in respective mRNA levels that are related to GO terms discussed above based on the FPKM values (Figure 3.1D, 3.3, 3.4). With regard to oxidative stress responses, for example, there are four mRNAs encoding glutathione peroxidase in Naegleria sp. while only one mRNA in Acanthamoeba sp. and Vannella sp. (Figure 3.1D). This gene is known to reduce oxidative damage (Arthur 2000), and the mRNAs were reproducibly upregulated in all the three species of amoebae feeding on the green prey upon illumination (Figure 3.1D). The genes were also upregulated upon illumination in Naegleria sp. and Acanthamoeba sp. feeding on the pale prey and cultured without prey (Figure 3.1D). In contrast, the gene was not upregulated upon illumination in Vannella sp. feeding on the pale prey. Thus it is

suggested that the mechanism for the upregulation of glutathione peroxidase is different among species of amoebae (Figure 3.1D).

With regard to mRNAs that are related to proteolysis, I examined the changes in levels of mRNAs that are likely involved in digestion of preys in phagosomes [putative lysosomal/phagosomal proteases (Bohley and Seglen 1992; Miao et al. 2008;

Guha and Padh 2008); Figure 3.3, Proteolysis]. However, there were marginal differences in respective mRNA levels between light and dark conditions in the three species of amoebae feeding on green prey. Only the exception was that cathepsin A mRNA in Naegleria sp., which were upregulated upon illumination when the cells fed on green or pale prey (Figure 3.3, Proteolysis). Thus, to interpret the upregulation of the GO term related to proteolysis, further analyses will be required.

With regard to mRNAs that are related to respiration and protein import from cytosol to mitochondria (TIC and TOC proteins), majority of mRNAs was upregulated upon illumination in the three species of amebae when they fed on the green prey (Figure 3.3, Respiration). For example, COX15 is involved in heme A synthesis (Barros et al. 2001), and the mRNA (the three species of amoebae possess single copy of the gene) was upregulated upon illumination in the three species of amebae when they fed on the green prey (Figure 3.1D). COX15 was also upregulated upon illumination in Naegleria sp. and Acanthamoeba sp. when they fed on the pale prey or cultured without prey, thus the upregulation is triggered by the light stimulus regardless of photosynthetic traits of preys (Figure 3.1D). In contrast, COX15 was not upregulated upon illumination in Vannella sp. feeding the pale prey, thus the upregulation was specific to

Prohibitin 1 and prohibitin 2 have been suggested to function as chaperone for respiratory chain proteins or a general structuring scaffold required for optimal mitochondrial morphology (Artal-Sanz and Tavernarakis 2009). TIM14 and TIM44 are components of the translocon that import mitochondrial protein precursors translated in the cytosol into mitochondria (Schiller et al. 2008; Mokranjac et al. 2003). These mRNAs were upregulated upon illumination in Naegleria sp. and Acanthamoeba sp.

when they fed on the green prey while were not upregulated when they fed on the pale prey or are grown without prey (Figure 3.3, Respiration 2). These mRNAs were also upregulated by RB (plus illumination) and H2O2 (under dark) treatment in Naegleria sp., suggesting that the upregulation was triggered by oxidative stresses (Figure 3.4, Respiration 1, 2).

GO terms categorized into carotene were enriched in upregulated contigs of Naegleria sp. (Table 3.1) and Acanthamoeba sp. (Table 3.3). In addition, in the contig level, mRNA encoding zeaxanthin epoxidase, which is involved in carotenoid synthesis (DellaPenna and Pogson 2006), was upregulated upon illumination in Vannella sp.

feeding on the green but not the pale prey (Figure 3.3, Carotenoid synthesis). However, the mRNAs encoding phytoene desaturase (Bartley et al. 1999) in Naegleria sp. and Acanthamoeba sp. and bifunctional lycopene cyclase/phytoene synthase (Velayos et al.

2000) in Acanthamoeba sp. that are related to carotenoid synthesis were also upregulated upon illumination regardless of photosynthetic traits of preys (i.e.

upregulated also in pale and w/o prey). In addition, mRNA encoding phytoene desaturase was also upregulated by H2O2 treatment under dark condition in Naegleria sp. (Figure 3.4, Carotenoid synthesis). Thus, this gene is able to be upregulated by either the light stimulus or oxidative stress.

GO terms categorized into v-ATPase, which acidify lysosomes and phagosomes (Toei et al. 2010), were enriched in upregulated contigs of Naegleria sp.

(Table 3.1). Additionally, a related GO term, endosomal lumen acidification (GO:0048388, P-value = 1.5E-02), was enriched in upregulated contigs of Acanthamoeba sp. (Table 3.3). In addition to Naegleria sp. and Acanthamoeba sp., mRNAs encoding v-ATPase subunits were also upregulated upon illumination when Vannella sp. fed on the green prey, although the differences in FPKM values between light and dark were relatively small compared to the other two species of amoebae (Figure 3.3, Vacuolar-type H⁺-ATPase). The upregulation of these mRNAs upon illumination was specific to amoebae feeding on the green prey and was not observed in amoebae feeding on the pale prey or grown without prey. These results suggest that the upregulation of v-ATPase mRNAs was specific to photosynthetic traits of prey (Figure 3.4, Vacuolar-type H⁺-ATPase).

With regard to myosin, type II myosin is known to be involved in phagocytosis (Olazabal et al. 2002; Chandrasekar et al. 2014). There are two mRNAs of type II myosin in Naegleria sp. and one in Acanthamoeba sp. and Vannella sp., and these mRNAs were downregulated upon illumination in the three species of amoebae when they fed on the green prey but not when they fed on the pale prey or were grown without prey (Figure 3.1D). In addition, type II myosin mRNA was downregulated in Naegleria sp. when they fed on E. coli stained with chlorophyll a or they were treated with RB (under illumination) or H2O2 (under dark) (Figure 3.1D). Thus, the dawn-regulation of type II myosin mRNA was specific to the photosynthetic oxidative

As observed above, although Naegleria sp., Acanthamoeba sp. and Vannella sp.

are evolutionally distantly related, many functional categories of genes upregulated and downregulated upon illumination were shared by these three species of amoebae feeding on the photosynthetic prey. However, as observed at the contig level, the responses of respective mRNAs (repertories of genes in which mRNA level changed and mechanisms that trigger the change of mRNA level) were different among three species of amoebae. These results suggest that these responses were important for unicellular predators to feed on photosynthetic preys under illumination safely but developed in these amoebae independently during evolution.

In this study, ROS generation in amoeba cells upon illumination was not able to be directly quantified by using CellRox Green Reagent (Molecular Probes®), Amplex Red Reagent (Molecular Probes®) or Singlet Oxygen Sensor Green Reagent (Invitrogen). However, genes that are related to oxidative stress responses were upregulated upon illumination in the three species of amoebae feeding on the green prey, and the transcriptome changes were mostly shared with changes by effects of chlorophyll a, H2O2, and RB, indicating that these amoebae were exposed to oxidative stresses derived from engulfed photosynthetic preys under illumination.

3.3.2. Decrease in phagocytic activity upon illumination in amoebae feeding